AUSTIN MARATHON - How hilly/slow is this course?

Doesn't look that bad.

https://youraustinmarathon.com/course/

Oftentimes hills don't look too bad in a marathon elevation guide because of the scale. Since the half marathon runs the same route for over 12 miles, I looked at it and it seems like there is a climb from about 450' to around 700' in the first 3.3 miles. There is a big downhill to follow but you always lose more time climbing that you gain going back down. Overall, it seems like there is a slight positive elevation change to the course (maybe 50').

I mapped out the course so I could see some more detailed info for you. There is 892 feet of incline and 846 feet of decline. Pretty tough course. It's got more uphill and less downhill compared to Boston, which is around +600 and -1063. Starts on a big incline for 3-4 miles and then goes back down. Middle of the course is rolling. Mostly flat past mile 20 until the last mile to go back up a little bit

This course is pretty challenging. One of my runners is running the full and we are not looking for a fast time (2:39 Marathon PR )

Same runner ran the half last year right before we started the build up for her spring marathon. She had just ran a decent 10k a couple weeks earlier and went 1:18 for the half, (was a PR for her at the time) this past month she ran 1:17 for the Dallas half marathon.

We also just ran the last half of the course last weekend as a preview and were impressed with how many "inclines" there were in addition to some decent hills over the second half.

GB

Ft Lauderdale marathon is that same weekend and seems pretty flat

Napa Valley is pretty nice and fast!

Bumping this up to see if anyone has any insight on the race. Thanks for the responses so far.

I arrived in Austin this morning and ran about 4.5 miles, part of it over the first few miles of the course south of the river. It was definitely not flat. Congress Avenue was not as bad as some of the side streets running perpendicular to Congress. Looks like the weather is going to be pretty hot for a marathon, too. It sucks to have such great training and then have to change to a hilly course and add high temperatures to that but this is the way it is. I'll make the best of a bad situation, I guess.

Good luck, OP! Let us know how the race goes.

If you can drive the course I highly recommend it. I have it saved on garmin if you want to down load it on your device, I can email it to you.

My runner and I have run segments of the entire course as well as the first 22 miles. We've run the last 14 twice. We pretty much planned on a slower time and warmer temps.

Good Luck

I drove it this afternoon and I'm glad I did. I was shocked to see the hill on Enfield Road. After the flat stretch along the river, you have no idea the hill is even there until you make the turn. I got a little lost once or twice in the late miles because there are so many turns but probably drove 95+% of the course. There are traffic alert signs up along the course warning of the race so it's pretty easy to stay on course.

Definitely need to be conservative through the first 4 miles then ride the long downhill to the river at mile 6.

Weather.com is calling for 60 degrees at the 7:00 AM start, rising to 64 by 10:00 AM. Winds rising from 7mph to 11mph.

Do you happen to still have this that you can share? I'm assuming the course is still the same for 2022. I'm debating running it - depending on how nasty the course is. I've only done Chicago and a few half marathons.

Two years later - but how did it go? I'm considering running it this year.